2/15
Film
3, titled Breathe, is a story centered around the healing arts &
massage. After all shooting was done,
the girls sat down & Wendy popped in a tape of BodyMind for the
actresses to watch. BodyMind is another massage-based piece, shot on b&w
super-8 film, and later transferred to DV & re-edited on her PC. I think
they liked it. No telling how Breathe will compare to BodyMind.
One
of the neatest parts of filming came when Wendy accidentally left the camera
on while providing instruction (directing) for the actresses. Could make a
great out-take someday.
The
house looked liked a mini-studio Sunday. Cables running everywhere. Painfully
bright studio lights strategically placed - some pointing up, others pointing
down. Wendy calls this 'bouncing light'. At one point, one of the lights got placed too close to the molding
above the doorway to the massage room, and the wood got too hot (the lights get real
hot), and the paint on the wood molding started smoking. The house
quickly filled with the obnoxious smell of burnt paint. Now we
have a nice brown spot on the white molding to remind us of the shoot. So, other than almost catching the house
on fire, the shoot went well. =D
Both
actresses drove down from LA. Lynne called from the
freeway to say that she was running a little behind (10 mins). Austyn was
right on time - almost to the split second. Impressive, considering how
unpredictable LA traffic can be. It was obvious the girls came prepared to work.
They seemed professional, although I heard lots of laughing. They seemed to be
having fun with the shoot.
Wendy
recently got a 50-foot length of s-video cable
that she ran to the TV (32-inch). This (big picture) gave
her a lot more control over the lighting & focus. The little 3-inch flip-out
window on the camcorder doesn't let her see much detail - nothing like a 32-inch
TV. She actually ordered only an 8-foot length of s-video cable for the DVD
player. The store was all out of smaller lengths, & shipped a
50-foot length for same price. Didn't realize she could use the TV as a
recording monitor (with the long s-video cable) until right before the shoot.
Lynne, who played the massage getter, is an undeclared
sophomore at USC. She (like Wendy) applied to the undergrad Production program and got
turned down (also like Wendy). Wendy shared her little tricks to getting into the Film prgm ay
USC with Lynne. Lynn said, "You're my hero. You're doing what I want to do."
Austyn
works at Universal Studios. I've never been there. We want to go - maybe when
Wendy said the best part of the day came after the shoot. Wendy made a fire, and the three girls sat down by the fireplace (it rained off & on Sunday) and had a bowl of my world-famous, nuclear-grade, home-made chicken soup - from grandma's secret recipe. Serious nutrition. Wendy said the girls loved the soup.
With
a steaming bowl of chicken soup, the actresses discussed the life-experiences from which
they drew their emotions during the shoot. I was down at the beach at the
time, but I hear it got personal, and the girls got well-acquainted
there by the fire. Wendy used the word magical.
Wendy tapped ~ 60 mins of footage for a 6-minute film - about 10 mins of raw footage for each minute of final product. We read somewhere that the movie Apocalypse Now had a world-record ratio of something like 90-to-1, and that most movies get a 30-to-1 ratio.
Wendy finally got to bed about 1AM & had to get up extra-early (5AM) to meet with her acting/directing partners Monday morning. The acting went well. They were the first group. Wendy said it was good to get that out of the way. Later, she was so tired that she slept in the car for an hour or two between classes. She's never done that before. She managed to squeeze in a work-out, swim & sauna at USC's gym yesterday, between classes.
The shoot took a lot
out of her. It's different working with actresses she didn't already know. Seems
like shooting should be the same, but it was different. Seems like a
whole new world. Weird having people we've never met come to the house,
and when they leave, they feel like close friends.
Students are having
problems uploading video footage onto hard drives at the bullpen (at USC). Thursday, six
people were supposed
to show their films, but that only two wrote their names on the board - which
indicates they're ready to show. The prof said that this has "never happened
b4". He said everybody was having probs with the editing system, but that
the students need to plan accordingly (allow for glitches, problems). Wendy
learned about the inevitable techno-glitches over the past year of editing on
her PC at home. Things don't always work the way expected, & problems arise
at the most inopportune time.
The
other 4 students had to go over to the bull-pen during class & put out to
tape whatever they had done to that point. They showed their films incomplete,
which can be painful. Wendy said that even the Harvard girl, Jennie, had a tough time.
Another girl, who one she calls a 'true artist' (Stacey, with sculptor
background),
did a personal piece about her child and her family, but didn't have time to add
any audio/sound with it, so it was silent. Wendy said it had to be devastating
to show something so personal in an unfinished state, and felt for her.
Wendy
said she's gonna send them an email & encourage them, cuz she wants her
class to be the best that's ever came thru USC. She knows how hard it can
be to pour your whole heart & soul into a piece, and have it not work, then get ripped
to shreds.
The
next major focus will be editing Film 3.
Will
leave you with an email we got from Sidney today -> titled From Page C5 in
today's LA Times. Sounds interesting. See here:
AtomFilms'
search for short films it can broadcast on its Web site will take it to USC
today. The Seattle company is expected to announce an exclusive deal to
distribute 100 films made by students at USC's School of Cinema-Television,
including films done long ago by then-students George Lucas (Star Wars) and Robert
Zemeckis (Forest Gump).
Financial terms of the licensing deal were not disclosed, but Larry Auerbach, a
USC associate dean, said the deal will enable the school to speed up efforts to
archive its 75-year-old film collection. "USC Cinema Yearbook" will be
available on the web at http://usc.atomfilms.com
Next -> Sad & Disturbing
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